How are you, friend?

I don't usually let a year go by without mentioning and championing the annual mental health awareness week. However, this year I have been suffering myself ironically and haven't been able to write about the allotment or even the allotment patio. My depression has been heavy, anxiety unbearable at many points and I just don't feel engaged.

Even though it's getting like a lush jungle out there, I haven't even taken a photograph or a good look at things until 5 mins ago.

I must say though that many things are going great with our plants. Everything especially in the patio where most predators ( bar the snails) are yet to know about the tasty foodstuffs. OK our turnips and spinach seem to be bolting and the wild winds on Friday/Saturday hurt the leek seedlings but there's little to complain about. Also, I'm not sure why but all the spring onions are growing droopy - I don't mind it and they look yummy but it's odd....

leeks which bounced back, the many broad bean flowers, bolting spinach, droopy scallions

*******

I've been hiking around where we live with Andrew and Toby. Yes, there are very few footpaths but we are loving the exercise that we would usually have to wait for the weekend to do. Boy we have found some beautiful places... How glorious it is to see wild strawberries, gorse, bluebells, ferns, violets, sheep and even horses and donkeys.


I hope you know that wherever you are, whatever you're feeling these days, it is valid. If your thoughts are negative please talk to someone you trust. If it comes to it talk to me, my lovely.

Hugs
Carrie
xx

More Allotment Patio

You join me outside with Andrew who is planting up another vegetable crate to add to the lovely jumble of allotment pots we have on the patio. Everything is going terribly well and there aren't even any pests on the plants (bar one slug), unlike at the main allotment plot where everything is being tackled by everything! It can't just be me - there are a lot more insects (hover flies in particular) and sweetly singing birds around this year - no??

So we are making an allotment box out of an orange plastic crate; we got this one discarded outside a farmers' market. Andrew carefully opened up a grow bag with scissors running along one end and poured all the contains out into a trug. Then he trimmed the other end and cut up the seam along the back length of the plastic. Laying this rectangle out, he lined the crate before emptying all the compost back in, spreading it evenly. This one is being planted up with coriander plugs, spring onion plugs (multi sown) and carrot seeds (rotundo - little round ones), see above.

Toby is over by the tulips and the water feature (which he frequently drinks from) laying in the sun and every now and then stretching and getting more comfortable; he's being a good boy.

Elsewhere in the patio allotment the mangetout peas are starting to romp away up the trellis support, the turnips have gone a bit bonkers with a growth spurt and the radishes are so juicy and plump we are eating them everyday with baby perpetual spinach too.

The potatoes are just starting to show their tips which I find very exciting and the broad beans are slowly (strongly) climbing up by their bamboo sticks and the flowers teasingly get bigger every day.

In the greenhouse my flower seeds are looking lovely but still a little too wee to plant up yet in the empty pots I have beside me. We also have baby celery, purple sprouting broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kale and lettuce seedlings in there, all looking well.

In the cold frame here, we have leeks (multi sown) and a wide variety of chard and beetroot varieties.

I hope you are having a good weekend my lovelies. Stay well and happy growing!
Hugs
Carrie xx 

The allotment patio

Hello, gorgeous people! *waves* and welcome to this special outdoors blog post live from my patio :) I sit here with a coffee in the sunshine with Toby and Andrew (who is working from home).

I hope you are well and keeping safe and sane in this weird quarantine period. It's actually not that bad really, is it? We have to stay at home with our TVs and books and blankets to do battle with this horrid virus. It could be a lot worse I guess. (OK I know it's Hell for some and I'm sorry xx)

So the mini allotment here is growing really well and I so happy to see the seedlings everyday slowly getting bigger and stronger in the mini greenhouse. The ones that are planted out are looking great and personally I would like to have these vegetable pots and flower pots every year - it looks so lush and green out here!

Beside me we have growing cabbages, coriander, radishes, turnips, spinach, beetroots, potatoes, leeks, spring onions, carrots, broad beans and peas! We came up with a fab idea for the potatoes in fact (I'm sure others have thought of this before but it excites us) - putting them in pots as usual and growing multi plugs of spring onions on top = a champ pot ;)

The first crop of radishes will be ready in a about a week - they are so rewarding to grow, I'd forgotten all about them over the past years but you get a crop in no time at all and they are so pretty. We have a heck of a lot so it's just as well we like their feisty peppery taste.

I have also just noticed that the broad beans have tiny flowers appearing and the mangetout peas are starting to cling unto the trellis behind them - you notice every little detail everyday instead of every week and it's utterly charming. I recommend this to everyone if you have even the smallest outdoor space - pots, grow your veg in pots and you can even add colour with marigolds!

I'm also noticing more of the joyous springtime changes that happen in the garden too. Since the start of the week the beech hedge has become greener every day, dropping its brown leaves and letting the new green leaves unfurl - its beautiful. The acers and the maple leaves are opening like paper fans and god grief there are so many hover flies and bees - I never noticed before - oh and the bird song!

Tulip pots -

 We've already had a beautiful flush of daffodils and after these blooms there are alliums to come.

Things continue at the allotment plot too but I'll save that for another post.

What's happening with you these days?

Virtual hugs 

Carrie

Just me

beautiful catkins on the birch

It's all go around here today with washing outside on most people's lines and the noise of lawn mowers filling the lazy air now and then. I've been outside myself, to put our own bedclothes on the line and marvel at the beautiful birch tree while Toby does his security detail -  making sure no other dog has been in his sacred space since he was last out. He gives off a few barks to remind everyone how fierce he is.

the last of the tulips in a pot

The birds are singing merrily and eating their fill now that Andrew has both mixed seeds and peanuts out for them (they are well looked after!). There isn't much else happening in the garden at the moment, things are growing and buds are fat but the daffs are going over and the tulips are rather tatty round the edges. We'll need to get some little plants to brighten up the place again; fill my little stepped display.

I have been fighting hard and we had a lovely hike last weekend and have a 2 day hike organised for this weekend. Plus we are ready to tackle that allotment and get some seeds planted! The potatoes weren't even done, per tradition, on St Patrick's day as it was simply too wet and too cold. I can't wait to get there, really. I have high hopes for the blossoming trees and the new garlic and broad beans.

Now we're getting into the summer-y vibes. It's time to plant, grow, get healthy and be happy.

Hugs and love
Carrie xx

Daily photo challenge (2) - June books

Jeepers! It's been a week already and here we are back for some more book themed photographs in keeping with the 'Booktopia' Instagram June challenge. I had to check the date twice there, it feels like a Wednesday to me - which means I missed writing up my 'love letter to a strawberry' post 2 days ago. Damn it, I'll do it for the weekend.

Anyway here we go:

Day 8 - Book with 'girl' in the title

Day 9 - A Classic 

(Good grief Homer is incredible - though I do prefer The Odyssey) 

 Day 10 - A male protagonist 

Day 11 - A book recommended to you.

(Recommended by my hubby and yep, I loved it.)

Day 12  - Your favourite series. 

Day 13 - a book tower!

Day 14 - A green book

The Well Tempered Garden bought second hand from a National Trust book shop but woah! it has a Great Dixter address label inside it and it's signed by the man himself (1978)!

* There it is creeping into the last photo - my gorgeous, triumphant double strawberry. I shall write my short love letter to it now and post it tomorrow. It had been the closest to any gardening done this week as we both have had a bloomin' awful cold and the allotment has felt like it may as well be atop a mountain; we just haven't been able to go. Hopefully that shall change soon.

Much love
Carrie xx

P.S. What are you reading at the moment??

in the garden

Behold!  This is gorgeousness - this is wonder - this is going to be eaten very soon 😋

 my triumphant double strawberry - the first berry of the season 

So since I last wrote I have been down and out with hayfever and the cold, the latter of which Andrew has now caught off me. Poor thing. But despite all that I have been busy and pushing myself to go outside a little everyday. I have a project - 'Clean the back garden'!

So it did look like this....

the 'before' photo of the clean up operation

And now with the help of Mamma G's power hose (so much fun!) I have all the patio done; but it just makes the gravel and the walls of the raised beds look so much worse. *rolls eyes* So no photos until I get that sorted out next. Then of course we still need garden furniture and a new climber in a sexy pot etc etc... One day we will be happy, that day will probably coincide with us putting the house up for sale for some such thing, haha.

Are these adore little nemesias laughing at me? - they look like they are in my mind. I feel like they were maybe featured in the Alice in Wonderland cartoon when I was little and they were laughing. I'm probably wrong - so much mucus on my brain.

Love and hugs
Carrie
xx

Oh, I am really going to push for a quick visit to the allotment tonight, keep your fingers crossed.